Dunedin Blue Jays rally past Miracle, win 9-3

May 14, 2013

FORT MYERS - Scott Copeland shut down the Fort Myers Miracle over six innings as the Dunedin Blue Jays came from behind to beat the Miracle 9-3 Tuesday at Hammond Stadium.

The Miracle scored two unearned runs off of Copeland in the first inning after a ground ball from Eddie Rosario went through the legs of third baseman Andy Burns?that allowed Aderling Mejia to score and Kennys Vargas followed with an RBI ground out two batters later.

That would be all for the Miracle off of Copeland. The right-hander from Southern Miss only gave up an infield single to Levi Michael the rest of his night. He retired the last 13 batters he faced and 18 of the last 19 batters overall.

Miracle starter Matt Summers was equal to the task through the first five innings. The Blue Jays mustered just three singles against Summers through the first five, but the game unraveled for Summers in the sixth. He started the sixth with a walk to Johnathan Jones then Shane Opitz doubled to left. A wild pitch on a strikeout to Jon Berti allowed Jones to score to make it 2-1. Opitz went to third and Berti went all the way to second.

Andy Burns tied the game 2-2 on a ground out, and after a walk to Jon Talley, Summers gave up an RBI single to K.C. Hobson and the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead.

Dunedin scored four unearned runs in the seventh to pull away. Chad Rodgers retired the first two batters of the innings, but Berti started a rally with a single up the middle. Matt Newman singled through the right side and Michael booted a ball at short stop off the bat of Burns that let Berti scored. Talley unloaded a double to score two more unearned runs and Derrick Chung completed the scoring with an RBI single.

The Miracle got a run back in the eighth on an RBI single from Mejia that plated Michael, who led off with a double. However, the Blue Jays tacked on two more in the ninth against Dakota Watts to push their lead to six.

Copeland got the win to improve to 3-1 while Summers got the loss and fell to 1-3.

Mejia and Michael each recorded two-hit games for the Miracle.

The Miracle (28-9) and Blue Jays (21-14) meet again on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. as part of Islands Night at Hammond Stadium. The broadcast can be heard on www.miraclebaseball.com